"The Bible is important to us not just as a rulebook from God. In fact, if we read it that way, we have missed the whole point of it. We will remain in our sins! God’s law condemns everyone of us to the wrath we deserve for our lawlessness. The Bible is preeminently a life book from God.

Its main theme is that God is rescuing a lost humanity and restoring the universe to Himself through the ransom Jesus Christ has paid!

Threrefore, for God’s glory and by the power of the Spirit, Hampton Park Baptist Church exists to display and to proclaim to all people everywhere the good news that God is creating a people for His name from every nation, kindred, and tongue through the redemptive work of the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to THE BIG WHY: Why should we pursue life by the Book? now THE BIG WHY

Why should we pursue life by the Book?

 Ephesians 1:3-14

SCRIPTURE READING: Revelation 5:9-14

INTRODUCTION

“Life by the Book” is our church slogan. It is a succinct way of expressing this core value:

Our driving passion is that the body life of Hampton Park Baptist Church display what the NT teaches the church should be and should do, whether gathered or scattered.

But why should “life by the Book” be our passion?

One fairly obvious answer—

The only choice open to us that is consistent with our professed view of Scripture

We believe the Bible (the Book) is God’s Word. Inerrant. Authoritative. So it’s a no-brainer that we ought to obey it.

But that’s not all. Why hold such a high view of Scripture? What difference does it make whether we hold such a view or holding it, follow through with living according to it?

God’s Word is not just inerrant and authoritative. It is life-giving because it comes from God. That’s why we illustrate “Life by the Book” with the tree growing out of the Bible.

The Bible is important to us not just as a rulebook from God. In fact, if we read it that way, we have missed the whole point of it. We will remain in our sins. God’s law condemns everyone of us to the wrath we deserve for our lawlessness. The Bible is preeminently a life book from God. Its main theme is that God is rescuing a lost humanity and restoring the universe to Himself through the ransom Jesus Christ has paid.

What are the things that lead us to praise His glorious grace?

Ephesians 1:3-16

blessed us in Christ
chose us in him
that we should be holy and blameless before him
predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ…to the praise of his glorious grace
blessed us
redemption
forgiveness
unite all things in him
inheritance…to the praise of his glory.

sealed with the promised Holy Spirit…to the praise of his glory.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is calling out a people for His name out of every nation, kindred, and tongue, and He is doing all this “to the praise of His glory”—His shining splendor.

This is the most stupendous thing happening in the universe. It is the most significant saga in all human history. It matters more than anything else. Because it is what God is doing in the universe. And what He is doing brings Him glory from the universe. That’s why He created the universe in the first place. That’s why He created us. That’s why He recreated us in Christ Jesus.

So this matters…
More than the rise and fall of nations.
More than wars and rumors of wars.
More than economic downturns and upturns.
More than political power.
More than careers.
More than education.
More than families.
More than health.
More than money.
More than entertainment.
More than sports.
More than earthly pleasures.
More than church programs and budgets and buildings.
More than church traditions and protocols.

All these things have their place.
But they all exist to serve the supreme reason, the big why.
God’s glory through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Big Why is not just that God is saving and transforming people who don’t deserve it, but that in doing so, He is displaying His glory in the best way possible. He is carrying out this grand reconciliation of sinners, this release of the universe from its prison of sin and suffering and death, so that He, the Supreme Being in the universe, is accorded what He deserves—glory and praise from the universe He created.

Life by the Book is about attaching ourselves to this colossal purpose of God.

People who aren’t paying attention to what the Bible says are out of touch with the most important thing of all.

So of all people on earth, those that are supposed to be members of the church, the body of Christ, ought to understand and fulfill their place in God’s great plan of redemption, or they have become blind to their very reason for existence.

Born-again believers who make up the true Church live by the Book because of this Big Why. God’s glory.

All things exist for God’s glory. The very heavens declare the glory of God. The material creation demonstrates His power and His godhead. But the church is to bring God glory in a very specific way. It displays and proclaims the gospel to all the world.

1 Timothy 3:13-14:

I am writing these things to you so that . . . you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

God is best glorified through His eternal plan of redemption revealed in the Scriptures: He is calling out a people for His name out of every nation, kindred, and tongue to the praise of His glory.

He has given His people, His church, a mission to fulfill. They are to participate in calling out a people for His name. They are to display and proclaim the miraculous transformation He graciously works in every believer. They do all this because God deserves the glory that comes to Him by such a miraculous rescue and transformation of sinners into saints, of rebels into children, of mortals into immortals.

He gets glory because such a rescue and transformation is so humanly impossible that it is obvious that only God could do such a thing.

Ephesians 3:20-21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

4:1 I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

1 Peter 2:9-12 that you may proclaim the excellencies of him…they may see your good deeds and glorify God.

2 Peter 3:18 To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. 

Romans 11:33-36 To him be glory forever.

Revelation 1:4-6 to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Jude 24-25 …be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority

CONCLUSION

The Big Why—Not just, why should we as a church pursue life by the Book, but why do we even exist?

For God’s glory and by the power of the Spirit, Hampton Park Baptist Church exists to display and to proclaim to all people everywhere the good news that God is creating a people for His name from every nation, kindred, and tongue through the redemptive work of the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is our Divinely-given purpose.

May it be our Spirit-empowered prayer.

Just as it was Paul’s prayer for the churches he served.

Ephesians 3:14-21 ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

“Three Implications” (Trellis and the Vine, 38-39)

—  “It is time to say goodbye to our small and self-oriented ambitions, and to abandon ourselves to the cause of Christ and His gospel.”

—  “The only growth that has any significance in God’s plans is the growth of believers.”

—  “This people-growth happens only through the power of God’s Spirit as He applies His word to people’s hearts.”

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